Psalm 137:1-9
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
2 There on the poplars
we hung our harps,
3 for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How can we sing the songs of the Lord
while in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
6 May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy.
7 Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8 Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
9 Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
This is a psalm written after the Babylonians took the people of Jerusalem from their homeland...The Psalmist is sitting by a river in Babylon and thinking of home, of Zion...There victors want Hebrews to sing songs of their homeland, but how can they, they are captured and exiled in another country...The people are greatly saddened they are exiled and tell the LORD to remember the Edomites...Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell to Babylon...“Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”...Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us...The Jewish people want God to repay those who have done to them...They want God to show with His strength and His power and help His people...Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks...The Jewish people want destruction to come to Babylon and even affect the little ones...This could happen again and they may not escape their exile, if the next generation follows the way of their parents...
Some historians believe the Jewish people were exiled for forty plus years, some say longer...King Cyrus of Persia would topple the Babylonian Empire...So the LORD would hear their prayers and King Cyrus would be the King that would put an end to the exile of God's people and allow the people to go back home to their Promised Lands of Judah...